Like 'Iron Man 3' and 'Thor: The Dark World,' the question was never whether or not 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' would take the number one spot at the box office, but rather how much it would earn while sitting pretty at the top of the list. Also, like its "Phase 2" predecessors, the second Steve Rogers adventure proved that people are still punch-drunk in love with the Avengers characters.

Film

Weekend

Per Screen

1

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

$96,200,000

$24,429

$96,200,000

2

Noah

$17,000,000 (-61.1)

$4,761

$72,341,000

3

Divergent

$13,000,000 (-49.3)

$3,580

$114,029,000

4

God's Not Dead

$7,726,000 (-12.2)

$4,395

$32,520,000

5

The Grand Budapest Hotel

$6,300,000 (-26.2)

$4,988

$33,380,000

6

Muppets Most Wanted

$6,285,000 (-44.3)

$2,059

$42,142,000

7

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

$5,300,000 (-41.6)

$1,808

$102,202,000

8

Sabotage

$1,908,000 (-63.8)

$767

$8,767,000

9

Need For Speed

$1,836,000 (-56.6)

$1,032

$40,839,000

10

Non-Stop

$1,827,000 (-54.4)

$1,060

$88,138,000

That $96 million opening is $31 million higher than the opening weekend of 'Captain America: The First Avenger' and $11 million higher than the opening of 'Thor: The Dark World,' proving that Cap has gone from doing respectable box office to doing great box office. He may not have the clout of Iron Man (whose third film opened to $174 million), but he's already poised to break $200 million and may very well have a shot at $250 million if things go his way. Heck, with no real blockbuster competition until May, 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' has an outside chance at $300 million, but that's no sure thing and we don't recommend betting on it. But maybe!

'Noah' took a steep drop and fell to second place, grossing $17 million for a currently total of $72 million. The challenging blockbuster has divided audiences, so a drop like that is completely expected. The big question now is whether or not it'll break even or even hit $100 million. Barring a disastrous third weekend, it would break the latter, but it'll need international grosses to ultimately pay for itself at this point.

'Divergent' held decently in third place, grossing $13 million for a $114 million total. The film should be in the black by now and with a sequel already in the works, we could be looking at a 'Twilight' situation where the sequel's gross eclipses the first one.

In fourth place, 'God's Not Dead' continued to play very well to its base, grossing $7 million for a $32 million total. Every few years, a Christian movie like this breaks out and does extraordinary business, so this success isn't surprising, but it is noteworthy.

'The Grand Budapest Hotel' also continued its path to sleeper hit status, grossing $6 million and reaching $33 million, putting it on the path to becoming Wes Anderson's highest grossing film. The final gross of 'Moonrise Kingdom' is only $12 million away and it's looking like this one will fly past that in a week or two.

In sixth and seventh place, 'Mr. Peabody & Sherman' and 'Muppets Most Wanted' kept themselves alive, with the former crossing the $100 million mark and the latter reaching $42 million. 'Mr. Peabody & Sherman' is an unqualified success, but 'Muppets Most Wanted' is trickier -- it's almost reached its production budget and will probably end up somewhere between $50 and $60 million, but Disney had much higher hopes than that.

The last three slots belonged to the action movies, with 'Sabotage' continuing to be one of the biggest bombs of the year, 'Need For Speed' continuing to disappoint, and 'Non-Stop' finally realizing that $100 million won't happen, but $90 million do.